A political ally of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said the 73-year-old billionaire "confuses leadership with absolute monarchy," the left-leaning La Repubblica reported.
The comments by Gianfranco Fini were picked up by a video camera during a meeting in Pescara last month and published on the internet.
Silvio Berlusconi "confuses the popular consensus, which he naturally has and gives him legitimacy to govern, with a sort of immunity from all authorities of guarantee and control: the judiciary, the Court of Auditors, the Court of Cassation, the head of state, parliament," said Fini, who founded the People of Freedom Party with the Italian premier.
"I told him that he confuses leadership with absolute monarchy ... I told him 'remember they were beheaded'," Fini added, referring to the execution of the aristocracy during the French revolution.
Pescara prosecutor Nicola Trifuoggi, who was with Fini at the meeting, said that Silvio Berlusconi "was born several centuries too late, he would like to be a Roman emperor."
Attempts to reach Fini's office seeking comment were unsuccessful, while Trifuoggi declined to comment when contacted by the ANSA news agency.
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